Windy City.

The long Greyhound journey was less painful than expected. As we had to be up at 4am, sleeping took up most of the morning. We had a 2 hour stop over in Cleveland in the afternoon, during which time I became pretty knowledgeable about the Greyhound Station in Cleveland.

We arrived in Chicago at about 10pm and called on our host (again, we were couch surfing) for directions. A short tube ride (called the 'L' here) and we were greeted by Morgan who would be our guide for the next couple of days.

First day, we ventured to the downtown area and became familiar with the infamous 'Bean' Sculpture in Millennium Park. Hugely impressive and great for photo taking.
A few highlights from around the park:

The Bean

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Crown Fountain

The weather was abit unfortunate on our first day, experiencing first hand why they call it the 'Windy City'

A trip to the Art Institute of Chicago (free on Thursdays after 17:00!) got to see Nighthawks (Edward Hooper)...

I never understood why people take photos of painting, it seems to defeat the whole point to me, but I had to take one of this!

As the weather cleared I decided to embrace the sun by hiring a bike to do some city cycling. Chicago is apparently USA's most cyclist friendly city. At $30/day rental, it's no wonder they are friendly!

The longest bike ride I've done in years (about 7 hours) and managed to find myself in the middle of a ghetto. Being naive I felt this would be a great place to stop and get lunch. A Chicago style hot dog with relish that resembled the result of a sneezing attack upon a turd. The 'joint' I got it from was also uncomforting...The entire counter being shielded with a bullet proof screen and a large black lady screaming about the amount of salt on her fries.

A few shots of my otherwise pleasant bike journey...

Roundabouts do exist in America!

We also managed to check out a superb nightime veiw over the City via the bar at the Hancock Observatory...
The drinks were ludicrously expensive ($12 upwards) but the view was stunning. Once again, photos do this no justice.

The striking thing about Chicago compared to its bigger rival, New York, is the architecture. Truely spectacular buildings, one of my favourite being the Tribune Tower which features in its lowest walls, stones from around the world. I was very happy to see this...

"Give us back our stone you theiving yanks."

More great couchsurfing. After staying with Morgan for a couple of nights we were handed over to some friends of hers to put us up for the rest of the week. They couldn't be more accommodating and on picking us up from Morgans, took us to a house party of someone no one really knew (when does that ever matter!?).

And so we were ready to contunie our jourey South down Route 66. Next stop, St Louis (pronounced with the 's').

The Mega [cheap] Bus!